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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907046">City in Disguise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard_socks/pseuds/lizard_socks'>lizard_socks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Something Unusual [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Infinity Train (Cartoon), Stargate SG-1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Minnesota, Mirrors, Post-Canon, Solving Problems Quickly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:01:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,068</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907046</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard_socks/pseuds/lizard_socks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On what was supposed to be an ordinary trip into downtown Minneapolis, Tulip somehow became invisible.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Something Unusual [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043484</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>City in Disguise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tulip sat, alone, on the ground, at a crosswalk island at the
intersection of Hennepin and Groveland.<br/>
</p><p>It was snowing, but it was light; the kind of snow that would
probably melt away before any of it started to build up on the
ground. She wiped off her glasses (the fog from her breath had
frozen on the right lens) and looked around. Cars zipped by from
left to right. A few minutes ago, Tulip - in a fleeting act of
desperation - had tossed her hat into the road. A minivan appeared
to drive right through it, and yet the hat was unscathed. It was
like the van wasn't even there.<br/>
</p><p>Tulip didn't know exactly when she had become... invisible? A
ghost? One moment, she had been eating lunch with her parent's
neighbor Jack, who had given her a ride into downtown Minneapolis.
She had gotten up to find the bathroom. When she got back, it was
like he couldn't see her. Or hear her. Nobody could.<br/>
</p><p>She walked through the skyways. She walked across downtown. She
snuck into the Walker and made faces in front of people looking at
the exhibits. Eventually she made her way to the crosswalk. Even
then, she still attracted no attention whatsoever.<br/>
</p><p>At this point, she knew there was nobody who would be able to see
her.<br/>
</p><p>Jack had moved nearby a couple years back, and when both her
parents were out of town, or otherwise occupied with work, they
usually asked him if he could help out. He was a retired military
guy. At first Tulip was afraid he'd be super-serious and not
understand "the kids today", but as it turned out, he never took
himself all that seriously (and openly admitted to not
understanding "the kids", either of today, or of any other era).
And anyway, he had other errands to get done.<br/>
</p><p>Tulip pulled out her phone. She knew it wasn't going to work;
ever since she had disappeared to the world, it couldn't seem to
get a signal. Whatever had happened, it-<br/>
</p><p>Oh. It was in airplane mode.<br/>
</p><p>She flipped the switch on the settings page, and the phone
connected itself to the network. Tulip didn't even try loading the
browser. She went straight into Messenger and pulled open the text
chain with Jack O'Neill.<br/>
</p><p class="tulip">So I think I'm invisible?<br/>
</p><p class="tulip">no one can see me<br/>
</p><p class="tulip">I'm at the intersection of hennepin and groveland.<br/>
</p><p class="tulip">Bus stop by the church.</p><p>Tulip crossed the street. She figured if Jack was going to find
her, she ought to be in a location that was on the map. A
notification popped up on her phone.</p><p class="oneill">Can they hear you?</p><p class="tulip">No</p><p class="tulip">stuff moves through me too sometimes, I don't fall
thru the ground though, idk why that is</p><p class="oneill">I never understood that either.<br/>
</p><p>The wind started to pick up. Tulip sat down inside the bus
shelter. This shouldn't seem so strange to her - it hadn't been
that long since she got off the train. But that was a whole other
dimension. This was, well, Minnesota. Things like this weren't
supposed to happen here.<br/>
</p><p>Jack didn't seem that surprised, though.<br/>
</p><p>She thought back to another time she'd gone with him into town -
St. Paul, that time. The Whitecaps had just joined a new league
and moved to a new rink on the fifth floor of an old Dayton's, and
Jack had an extra ticket to the game. Tulip had never seen anyone
watch sports like he did: calm, laid-back, but at the same time,
clearly invested. He had stayed quiet throughout most of the game,
save for the occasional remark on the opposing team's players and
their strengths.<br/>
</p><p>Tulip stood up as a familiar car pulled alongside the road. Jack
O'Neill stepped out, looking calm as ever. Instead of looking at
her, though, he turned around, faced the other direction, and held
a long, shiny object at eye level in front of him.<br/>
</p><p>"Rearview mirror," he said, "in case you were wondering.
Statute's kind of vague but I figure as long as I reattach it
before we leave, we'll be fine."<br/>
</p><p>Jack walked into the bus shelter. Tulip got out of his way as he
affixed the mirror to the inside wall, opposite the bench. Then he
pulled out his phone and dialed a number.<br/>
</p><p>Tulip's phone started ringing. Of course. He couldn't hear her
the normal way, but if her phone still worked...<br/>
</p><p>"Can you hear me?" she asked, looking at Jack's face through the
mirror. "Though the phone?"<br/>
</p><p>"Yep." He looked back. "Score one for modern technology. You can
hear me <i>without</i> the phone, right?"<br/>
</p><p>"Yeah. Do you... know what's going on? Why no one can see me?"<br/>
</p><p>Jack pressed the <i>mute</i> button. "I'm sure some of them saw
you, once they drove past. In the mirror."<br/>
</p><p>This was starting to sound a little familiar. "Wait, so anyone
can see me - as long as they're looking through a mirror?"<br/>
</p><p> "Pretty much. Now, everyone else is only gonna see you once
they drive past, so I doubt they paid much attention. You know,
this is really the reverse of the normal situation, isn't it?"<br/>
</p><p>"Wait. You <i>knew</i>?"<br/>
</p><p>"That you have no reflection? Your mom told me."<br/>
</p><p>"<i>She</i> knows??"<br/>
</p><p>"Her, your dad, Sam. I think. Trust me, this is not the weirdest
thing I've ever seen."<br/>
</p><p>"What is?"<br/>
</p><p>"That's classified. Which means this is the story I'm going to
tell at dinner parties."<br/>
</p><p>Tulip looked out the window to her side. The snow had stopped,
which wasn't to say it had gotten any more pleasant out.<br/>
</p><p>"I know <i>something </i>happened, Tulip," Jack said. "I don't
blame you if you don't want to talk about it with me. I just hope
that whatever it was put you in a better place. Not physically, I
mean, 'cause, you know - stuck in a mirror. But we'll fix that."<br/>
</p><p>"How?"<br/>
</p><p>"Have you tried... walking through it?"<br/>
</p><p>"I don't really remember where it happened. Maybe I bumped into
something, but to find that same mirror again..."<br/>
</p><p>"Does it have to be the same mirror?" Jack asked. "Tell you what.
We can go to Target and find one big enough for you to fit
through."<br/>
</p><p>Tulip shrugged. "I guess it's worth a try. Um... are you going to
tell my parents about this?"<br/>
</p><p>"That I lost their daughter inside a mirror world?" he said. "Yeah... I'm
not really looking forward to that."<br/>
</p>
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